Non-Canon
by three times over
Summary: Doomed timeline thoughts with Leaf and the rival character. Some (*several) liberties taken. T for Suggestive Content and vaguely unsettling imagery.


"[The ' _doomed timeline_ ' theory] involves the universe incorporating a "fail-safe"... destroying any instance or timeline that deviates from a main timeline, to prevent multiple universes from existing." - _Temporal Paradox,_ Wikipedia

Clearly I wasn't paying attention while reading Homestuck _or_ this article, because this fic features no time paradoxes whatsoever. Unless the paradox is that the player-character's father shot out the wrong chromosome. This is not the direction I wanted this introduction to follow.

Wrote almost all of this in a frenzy at like, 4-6am, which is kinda great in the sense that I knew what I was doing for once but also concerning because, I'm supposed to be a grown, responsible adult. For a couple years now my personal writing has veered towards (poorly) attempted psychological horror, and I suppose it was inevitable my fanfiction did the same. I'm no good at it, but I'd like to think I have a more nuanced take than a lot of jumpscare media; maybe the result will pique your interest.

It occurs to me there'll be kids who never heard the Game Boy start-up sound in their life, so go look that up if you don't know it. Go. It's important. I'll be waiting.  
I always found it difficult to imagine the characters weren't already teenagers, so that's the angle I went into this story with; I'm sorry if you accidentally visualise things with their actual ages you really didn't want to.  
Also absolutely nothing about this fic lines up with the ingame dialogue but that's okay because it's _NON-CANON_ [laughs maniacally, leaps out of window]

Written 14th Feb 2015, age 20! Was gonna upload this on valentines this year but uh, valentine's day is good at whipping up distractions.

/-/-

* * *

Your name was Blue, and you lived for fifteen years in the small town of Pallet. You were the Professor's grandson, so your family was quite well-known around these parts. Your sister was a learned woman and respected college graduate; you were, more or less, an utter rapscallion. Your grandfather eyed you warily when you were set loose in his halls.

Your neighbour was a petite girl with curling brown locks, and you couldn't recall a day that you didn't know her. If she was diminutive in size, she certainly wasn't in character. The entire street dreaded when you two joined forces and disturbed the peace. She was cheeky and boisterous, and never seemed to run out of energy. You couldn't imagine spending your life with anyone else.

Sometimes, she and you would be digging for worms, or kicking a ball round, or lounging lazily on the couch, give or take the relevant age - and as you turned to her, a severe, scruffy young boy would flash across your vision.

The migranes always left you reeling and nauseous. A second later, and she would be back in your sights, clutching you with concern. She had come to know the symptoms and was always on hand to help you through. But you never told her what you saw each time.

/-

It was when the two of you began your Pokemon journey that you started to feel a little disconnected and paranoid. You grabbed a Squirtle from your Grandpa, while she picked a Bulbasaur. Your eyes flicked over the final Pokeball, still and lifeless. _Charmander,_ you thought, and turned away to stave off the sickness. She was already running to your side, but you shook her off and shakily, smiling, reassured her you were okay.

"Alright, you kids, be off with you," your Grandpa chuckled, and you two were racing out the door to test out your new companions. You felt like a child again as you ordered the poor creatures around without pause. When you looked up, you didn't know why it surprised you to still see her there.

/-

You ran into her by chance for the first time outside Mount Moon, and she seemed so tired, you didn't have it in you to push your team to its fullest. The match ended in a friendly forfeit with your Pokemon breathless at worst. She punched you for going so easy on her, but you could see the gratitude in both her eyes and her Ivysaur's.

"You know what, though, I've never been more thankful to be out of there," she laughed nervously, as you both left for Cerulean's Pokecenter. "All that darkness was messing with my head. I could've sworn I kept seeing things."

/-

"I'm sorry about your Raticate," she whispered, the two of you standing before an unmarked grave.

"It's okay, Leaf," you murmured back. She looked like she was about to cry. "It wasn't your fault."

"Then whose was it?" she sobbed, and the tears didn't stop, even as you held her and mumbled _"nobody's"_ , over and over again. She hiccupped and you felt her grasp around you tighten something fierce.

"Sometimes this trip has been just awful," she sniffed, droplets mottling on your shirt. "I train my team and win all the badges but I never feel like I'm doing anything right." She looked up at you with puffy red eyes. "Do you ever get the feeling that things just aren't how they're meant to be?"

You saw the young boy in your mind's eye, cold and unreadable. You clutched her tighter in response. You think she understood.

/-

You felt her heart pound as you pressed her against the freezing grass, but it wasn't love, not like you once thought it would be.

"Make me feel _real,_ Blue," she begged, voice cracking in your ears. "Make me feel safe for once."

You nipped the skin along her collarbone and made your way towards her jawline. When you reached her artery, she gripped you by the hair and pressed you tight against her pulse.

/-

"Blue," she said, voice small in the booming chamber. "I didn't know you had become Indigo Champion."

"It's good to see you, Leaf," you quietly replied. Your entire surrounds felt thick, like a migrane ready to burst. "I wish you all the best in our battle."

"You saw him too, didn't you?" she asked, and the throbbing pain set in. "The boy in the red jacket. He haunted me everywhere I turned." Pain, nothing but pain. "I saw you standing here, too, but I didn't know if that was real. I thought if I believed it wasn't, then maybe none of the rest would be."

You struggled to keep yourself upright and look her in the eye. "You want to do this as little as I do."

"I don't want to do it at all," she whispered, and she stepped into the arena. "I need a hug, Blue. Before this is all over."

When you released her, after what seemed like an eternity, the boy stood at the edge of the battleground, watching.

/-

"Congratulations," you tried to smile to her, but all she did was cry into your shoulder.

"What now? Do I put my team into the Hall of Fame?" she stammered. "What are we waiting for?"

You opened the door to that small room and found yourselves in the empty roads of Viridian City.

The sky started to fragment into dark, flickering grids, like tumours.

You clutched her tighter than you ever had before, and in the distance, a line of buildings split open. You'd never seen this Pokemon before, swathed in golden metals and twisting like a centipede, but it drifted through the air on smoky wings like the universe bent for it.

When it finally reached the two of you, towering overhead and growing thick legs before your eyes, you no longer had any fear left to give. Your system felt cold and hollow.

You glimpsed a movement at your side and the boy stood there, looking straight ahead.

He turned to you both and seemed to mouth that he was sorry.

As you stared into the monster's eye, and the red ring seemed to engulf you in dark tendrils, the last thing you heard was a distant ping: childlike, and lilting, like synthesized windchimes.

/-

Your name was Red, and you lay on the couch in your closest friend's quarters, staring dazedly at the wall in front of you.

He entered the room bearing a hot mug of tea and promptly forced it into your palms, despite your half-hearted protests. The fresh liquid scalded your tongue and the back of your throat. You kept drinking anyway, heat flooding through your insides.

"Feel any better?" he asked gently, and you nodded, as if you'd imply anything else.

The migranes had followed you since you were young, and as much as you tried to hide it from him, he knew the symptoms at an instant and was always on hand to help you through. You couldn't bring yourself to say anything, but when you were alone, they barely struck at all. You spent more and more time as far away as you could get, freezing gales whipping at your skin.

He was your best friend, and you couldn't just disappear from his life, but you never told him that they were strongest when he was by your side. You never mentioned the visions that, in his company, flashed across your mind - of a young girl with brown hair, mournful and silent.


End file.
